The 2014 Solo PR Summit was an experience that I will forever cherish. It was billed as a one-of-a-kind event and it delivered. I have had the pleasure of working with Kellye Crane for about a year and she never ceases to amaze me with her smarts, passion and innovation.

2014 Solo PR Summit

The Solo PR Summit was truly designed for independent practitioners. Yet, what made it over the top special was the attendees. I felt like I was truly among my tribe. Everyone from the speakers to attendees was welcoming and gracious. Knowledge and tips were freely shared, and no question was too small to be answered.

The top notch speakers over-delivered on their content but they were equally engaged participants. I cannot think of another event where the speakers remain throughout the conference actively listening and participating in all the sessions. Below are a few of my takeaways from this year’s summit:

Face time is valuable. I am a big believer in continuous learning but the Summit reinforced the value of in-person events. Nothing replaces the back and forth of face-to-face communication. You are using all of your senses and I believe it facilitates internalizing what you are learning. This summit had the added bonus of lots of opportunities to break bread, raise a glass or share a moment with really smart people.

Professional development is a two-way street. As we plan our professional development for the year it is often with a view of “what’s in it for me?” We want to invest our time and resources in ways that will offer the highest return. However, the summit reminded me that professional development is give and take. I learned but I also had the opportunity to share with others. As we share our own learning is reinforced.

Iron sharpens iron. There was tremendous value in being with people who have an independent practice or small business. I was enriched in a much different way than colleagues who work in corporate settings. We operate from a similar foundation and uniquely understood the challenges of triumphs of being solo professionals. I was pushed out of my comfort zone by what others were doing (hey they’re solo and they’re doing it, so I can too!) as well as encouraged by learning that some of my practices were on target (woo hoo I’m doing it right!).

We all need a shot of truth. I am done making excuses. I have pleaded cobbler’s kids’ syndrome so often because I did not put myself and business on my own agenda. Thanks to Shelly Kramer I now think “shame on the cobbler for neglecting his own when they should have been the best-heeled children of all!” Our own “house” should reflect what we offer to others. It is no longer humorous to plead “too busy with client work” as an excuse for not actively doing what I preach to others.

Lauren Vargas – Solo PR Summit

Event organizers deserve combat pay. I had a seat behind the curtain and had the chance to see the myriad of details of pulling off a 2-day conference. I have been involved in facets of event planning but it pales in comparison to what Kellye Crane had to do to make the 2014 Solo PR Summit a reality. I have a new respect for people who are so passionate about enriching others that they tackle the task of organizing an event. There are so many details to be tended to and even with careful planning there are a multitude of things that can and do go wrong.

I highly recommend getting outside of your silo and investing in professional development. Even when you think you know it all, you have the opportunity to learn more. I further encourage you to add at least one in-person learning opportunity each year. Go with a sponge mindset ready to absorb all that you can. The investment you make will pay off in your business many times over.

How about you. what’s on your professional development calendar this year? What do you most value about in-person events?

Update: Over the past several days I’ve been working closely with Sucuri to work through issues caused by the attack. Blog posts were disappearing, characters were appearing and I even had my own IP blacklisted. As a result of fixing these issues and sleuthing out any backdoor hacks you may have seen this post appear and reappear several times. I am so sorry and hope that this is all behind us.

The phone rings and somehow you know that the news is going to rip the fabric of an otherwise normal day. That is how I felt when my senior copywriter, Michele hit my cell over the weekend. Not that a call from her signals bad news but somehow my mind knew before my ears heard the news. My site had been hacked. In fact, I later discovered two of my sites had been hacked.

I felt violated, as though someone had ransacked my home and spray painted a note on the front door to mock me. Worse, a much needed weekend of rest had turned into a nightmare journey of fighting cybercrime.

I was not going to write this post, fearing that even using the H word would invite a return visit. But running scared is not my M.O. and this is an opportunity to help others avoid being burned by slimy human beings who break things for kicks.

Though I wanted to curl up in a corner and cry. I gave myself a 1 minute cry break, bucked up and did the following:

Changed all of my passwords. I have always adhered to strong passwords but bumped it up a notch to super strong.

Getting hacked not only causes emotional distress but can damage your business. Malware can cause search engines to blacklist your site. Your site visitors can be infected. All of this can damage your reputation and bottom line. As a business and communications professional I urge businesses to have a plan and a backup plan. Your website is an asset and you should absolutely be proactive by taking every measure to secure it and have a good plan in place should something go wrong.

There were things I was doing well and others that I allowed to slip. Listed below are the lessons I learned that you can apply to your own business.

Do not rely on one security measure. Your webhost may be great but if you use a CMS, themes, scripts or plugins you are still vulnerable to attacks.

Just like the software on your computer, make sure that you are always running the latest version of your CMS, theme and plugins. Failure to upgrade may expose you to security vulnerabilities.

Remove unused items. Delete any unused themes or plugins. Again, if you’re not using them you’re not updating them.

Backup on a regular basis. Even if your entire site were taken down, a backup will ensure that you can restore your site quickly.

Be judicious about what you install. Check out reputable sources for information on themes and plug-ins. Do research to see if there have been problems.

Use very strong passwords. Follow the advice of security pros and include a mix of upper and lowercase letters, numbers and symbols. Do not use personal information such as birthdays, phone numbers and addresses.

As an additional resource I created a list of articles on keeping your site secure. Please feel free to add to it with tips and references of your own.

Getting hacked sucks, but like every crisis it can take you down or help you to fortify your defenses for the future. These attacks are not going away so it is important that we become educated about the resources that can help us be proactive.

Have you ever been hacked? Commiserate in the comments and share your tips for getting through it.

In our passion for the digital culture we often lose touch with the merits of face-to-face interaction. While I champion the flexibility of remote work (and run my own business this way) I also value “face time.” All the technology in the world does not replace what happens when people interact in the same physical space.

Yahoo! has struggled to remain relevant in a fast paced world. If the company were thriving, then this move would come under greater scrutiny. However, in an attempt to rebuild it may be necessary to have “all hands on deck.” Managing a remote workforce requires companies to learn new ways of communication and engagement. However, when the company at large is broken it is impossible to address how to better engage remote workers and ensure that your vision, mission and values extend beyond the corridors of your corporate offices. When you consider the layers of problems facing Yahoo! Mayer’s decision may actually be viewed as groundbreaking.

As we line up “for” or “against” Mayer’s edict, let us not forget that the future of work will and should embrace both camps. The beauty of the new way to work is flexibility.Organizations can mix on-premise and remote workers in a way that specifically fits their culture and organizational goals. A hybrid work model has the ability to make companies even stronger by affording the benefits of a collective, collaborative culture while also leveraging the agility and specialized expertise of remote workers. This choice also benefits workers. Not everyone flourishes as a full time remote worker; some prefer the camaraderie and structure of on-site work. Only time will tell if Yahoo! has made the right decision, but the issues raised should be be examined by all organizations. The future demands that you have the ability to collaborate, innovate and preserve a strong company culture in and out of the office.

The following post is based on a true story. Some details have been withheld and names have been changed to respect the privacy of the subject.

“Money grubbing corporations,” she uttered with a slightly raised fist as she raged against modern corporate capitalism. Her anger was palpable making her appear larger than her mere 5 feet. Her graying hair softly bounced from side to side as her body communicated her disgust that someone would dare want to profit from her life’s work.

Mrs. Teague had been dedicated to her profession for nearly half a century. She had years of research and information meticulously cataloged in PDF files. She wanted to develop a website and provide the information “to the people” for free. Many organizations in her industry would have gladly taken her research and offered it to their millions of buyers and subscribers but Mrs. Teague refused, knowing they would sell rather than give away the information.

I listened politely, nodding at the appropriate moments. The years faded away as she talked and I pictured her as a young woman with long dark hair with beads around her neck protesting against an evil government. I fought back a smile not wanting to appear disrespectful, returning my attention to her present diatribe.

Like so many I have met, Mrs. Teague had definite ideas about money and profit. Her work, in her mind was valuable but to assign a price tag would be blasphemous. She had accumulated it in the course of her work, and as such it was created for “free” and should be offered for the same price. Yet, she would need a site that not only housed the information but a searchable database. She would also need to market the site so that “the people” could find it and access the free information. None of that would be free. She wanted to spend very little money to offer it, did not want any contact information on the site, and wanted no questions or follow up discussion from those who downloaded the information. She simply wanted people to come, download what they needed and go away.

The “money grubbing” organizations in her niche offered people a variety of services and support in addition to some free information. They charged a fee but they also provided something in return. Mrs. Teague failed to make the connection and simply saw profiting as evil. Her time and expertise in collecting the data would indeed be valuable to users, who would gladly pay to access already bundled information that would have taken them a huge amount of time and effort to gather on their own.

So, was Mrs. Teague wrong in wanting to give the information away? What would you have advised?

In the next post we’ll dig a little deeper into our attitudes about money and discuss the options in this scenario. Please join the discussion by adding your comments below.